As we wrote recently, the European Union is in the middle of a new Stability and Growth spat. Leading the charge in favor of “growth” is Italy’s sparkling new Prime Minister Matteo Renzi. Mr. Renzi wants the European Commission, the EU’s executive arm, to give countries like Italy more time to reduce their deficit and debt levels to the 3% and 60% of gross domestic product, respectively, that are required by the EU’s Stability and Growth Pact.

At a summit last week, EU leaders asked the new commission to use the flexibly allowed under the existing rules, for instance by focusing on structural rather than nominal deficit targets. Italy also wants more leeway while it overhauls its economy, labor market and legal system—among other things—and for public investments.

Those demands didn’t sit so well with Jens Weidmann, the president of the German Bundesbank and the euro zone’s lecturer in chief on budgetary control, aka “stability.” In a speech at the economic council of Chancellor Angela Merkel’s center-right CDU Thursday night, Mr. Weidmann lamented that euro-zone governments aren’t showing enough willingness to give up sovereignty over their national finances. Such a fiscal union, in which national spending is controlled either from Brussels or collectively by the euro zone, Mr. Weidmann said, is necessary to prevent debt crises like the one that has shaken the currency union in recent years.

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And the Bundesbank chief didn’t shy away from naming names. “Italy’s Prime Minister Matteo Renzi, for instance, compares the EU with an ‘old, boring aunt who tells us what to do’,” Mr. Weidmann complained, referring to a recent speech by Mr. Renzi.

And the Italian prime minister didn’t hesitate to retaliate. Asked about a clash over fiscal policies with Germany, Mr. Renzi said he hadn’t seen any negative statements on his fiscal plans from German politicians. When it comes to bankers, however, it’s a different story, Mr. Renzi added.

“The Bundesbank doesn’t have, among its tasks, to take part in the Italian political debate,” Mr. Renzi said at a news conference in Rome, standing next to European Commission President José Manuel Barroso. “Just as I don’t talk about the Sparkassen nor the Landesbanken,” he added, referring to state-owned German banks that have benefitted from exceptions in EU financial regulation.

And the Italian premier didn’t stop there—serving a final line that he knew was going to slip down like gelato with the attending journalists. “Europe belongs to its citizens, not to bankers, be they German or Italian,” he said.

Stay tuned on Real Time Brussels for more installments of Europe’s favorite soap opera.

About Real Time Brussels

The Wall Street Journal’s Brussels blog is produced by the Brussels bureau of The Wall Street Journal and Dow Jones Newswires. The bureau has been headed since 2009 by Stephen Fidler, who was previously a correspondent and editor for the Financial Times and Reuters. Also posting regularly: Matthew Dalton, Viktoria Dendrinou, Tom Fairless, Naftali Bendavid, Laurence Norman, Gabriele Steinhauser and Valentina Pop.